Quantifying the potential impacts of increasing agricultural fragmentation on land value

Societal expectations from rural lands have traditionally focused on the production of food and fibre. Yet the perception of rural areas is changing and they are now seen in many instances to be capable of delivering multiple functions or non‐commodity outputs including land conservation and the preservation of biodiversity, contributing to the sustainable management of renewable natural resources and enhancing the socio‐economic viability of many areas . The overall multi‐functionality is constrained or favoured by biophysical and socio‐economic drivers. As these types of drivers vary spatially and temporally, so does the functionality of the landscape and heterogeneous patterns emerge. Associated with multiple functions at a single location are a variety of pressures which can manifest themselves as conflict between interacting land uses. One such conflict in rural zones is that between agricultural use and residential use. Warrnambool City Council (WCC) is a Local Government Area (LGA) in southwest Victoria where the debate surrounding the best use of rural land is currently being debated. In a region where agriculture has historically been the mainstay of the economy there is some resistance to unplanned conversion to residential use. Despite concerns and much strategy being discussed it appears an investigation quantifying the impacts of these conversions is yet to be done. This paper addresses the issue of the allocation of land by using GIS mapping to incorporate economic, social and environmental attributes, and applying a theoretical economic framework for the optimal allocation of land to the comprehensive data set. Marginal values of land for competing purposes are estimated and discussed. The method is relevant for other regions where the rural/residential interface and associated planning decisions are highly topical.

Charting Australia Felix : re-interpreting cultural landscape creation through a land health lens

The landscape of the Western District of Victoria has been extensively transformed in the imagery and aspirations of United Kingdom estates but markedly modified to address the climatic and agricultural prospects of the District landscape. By assembling land, the original squatters had a clean sheet to map, comprehend, and configure an economically viable pastoral estate. ‘Charting Australia Felix’ seeks to ascertain the spatial and geographical logic and rationale that informed this pastoral estate formation. These settlers mastered an economically viable estate that respected climate, soil quality and ensured water security which were the essential ingredients of a quality land holding; their successful grazing and specialisation were dependent upon these attributes. Thus, they successfully comprehended the essences of the landscape in line with contemporary land care and rural land management strategies. Charting Australia Felix involves the use of the historic landscape characterisation method to map, assess and model some 5 exemplar pastoral stations in the Western District to quantify their temporal landscape characteristics, their responses to landscape evolution, and change to test and quantify what the archetypes are that may have informed these patterns. Using Murndal and Glenormiston pastoral stations as the lens of investigation, a preliminary appraisal is offered in this paper.